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She drew in another long breath, staring out at the cabins. She supposed there was some truth behind what he said. She only got one shot at this crazy thing called life. Maybe it was time to stop running and find that thing that made her happy. “Ever wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t been ripped away that day?” she asked him.
He wrapped his arm around her. “I wondered that every day the whole rest of the summer. And then, although I’m ashamed to admit it, sometimes even when I was with Nat.”
Somehow, she didn’t need to hear more than that. Because life did happen. Everything changed that night he kissed her. The life she had was forever different in so many ways. What she believed of love and loyalty was tossed away. And she was left to glue her own self together. But she never forgot the kiss or the guy who wanted to be her first everything.
Darryl.
She dropped her head on his shoulder. “You did it, you know.”
“What did I do?”
“You totally are better than a Christmas movie.”
His laughter echoed across the lake, and she smiled with him, feeling like it was perhaps the most honest smile she?
?d had in ten years.
Chapter Six
The ride back to the cabin had been bitterly cold with the brisk wind hitting Darryl’s face. Penelope hung on tight, thankfully blocked by his torso. She’d been quiet for a while at the lake, and he’d wondered what weighed so heavily on her mind. Probably her terrible fucking parents. They didn’t deserve her. He barely knew her and still could figure that out. When they finally made it back to the cabin, she’d remained closed off, and even after he built a fire, she sat on the couch, staring at the flames, silently in her own mind.
He couldn’t take it anymore. After he got the fire roaring, he turned to her and asked gently, “Why so quiet?”
She drew in a long deep breath before looking away from the fire toward him. Her expression showed very little. “Just thinking.”
“About?” he pressed.
“About how different life was when we had those five days together,” she eventually said. “We were so young, so free, all of our dreams ahead of us.”
“You are still young,” he reminded her, “and if I may say, very much free.”
Her eyes warmed with her laugh, and she shook her head. “It’s different.”
“How so?”
“Maybe I’m more jaded now,” she offered, obviously not fearful of stating the truth. “Definitely more aware that my life isn’t what I thought it’d be.”
At that, he cocked his head, very curious over that statement. “Your life isn’t what you want it to be?”
“No, I mean…” She inhaled sharply then sent her gaze onto the fire, neatly avoiding him. “My life is fine. I love traveling, seeing the world, and all that stuff.” The orange hues from the fire cast a soft glow on her face, showing off the gentle lines of her cheekbones. “Tonight, it’s just…I don’t know…I got little pieces of the girl I was back then. Before that night, I lived in this bubble, you know, where life was perfect and happy, and I thought anything was possible. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that girl.”
His heart reached for her. Fuck, did it ever. Because he remembered that girl too. “You’re as vivacious as you were back then, still strong and sexy and bold.”
She smiled softly. “But…?”
He paused. “Honestly?”
“Why not?”
“There is one subtle difference I see in you,” he said softly, unsure if speaking the truth would bite him in the ass later. “The girl I met at camp wouldn’t have run. Not from anything.” She quickly glanced away, and he knew he’d hit a nerve, but he also knew it was probably true. “Your strength back then had been mind-boggling to me. I remember thinking that you weren’t a leader. You also weren’t a follower. You were just…Penelope, this force to be reckoned with that had me kissing her when I could lose my job. And I never broke the rules, that’s not who I was back then, nor who I am now.” He spotted her rapid blinking and welling eyes, and added, “And I liked that Penelope. A lot.”
“You were twenty-years-old. We only spent five days together,” she said with a roll of her eyes to obviously hide her tears.
He moved to her and knelt in front of the couch. She held his gaze when he cupped her chin. “I still like that Penelope. As much as I like this one.”
“You don’t even know me anymore,” she whispered.
With that line, he suddenly realized that he understood her completely. She wasn’t running from shit—she simply couldn’t believe in the things she had before. Life had done its damage, like it had on so many people, but on her, that damage seemed…wrong. “I know what you show me, and that’s certainly enough for me to like what I see.”
